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MIDDLE AGES
Beginning in the 9th century, the Byzantine Empire experienced a major recovery that took several forms. The Muslim offensive halted on the eastern frontier, both because of the decline of the caliphate and because of the ingenuity of Byzantine strategy. Between the early 10th and 11th centuries, the empire's armies regained territory in south-eastern Asia Minor. Lands lost to the Slavs in Epirus, Thessaly , Macedonia, and Thrace were reconquered and reorganized. The recovery peaked under the long-reigning Macedonian dynasty, which began in 867 under its founder, Emperor Basil I, and lasted until 1081. Intellectual life revived and was accompanied by a conscious return to Classical models in art and literature: ancient manuscripts were copied and summarized; encyclopedias and other reference works were compiled; and mathematics, astronomy, and literature received new attention. External trade also intensified in the Mediterranean and Black seas. Bulgaria declined and was occupied by Byzantine armies in the 970s, while these armies also reconquered land south-east of the Taurus Mountains from the Muslims, including parts of northern Mesopotamia, northern Syria, and the northern Syrian coast. The greatest Macedonian emperor was Basil II, who vigorously repressed (1014) a lengthy Bulgarian rebellion and expanded his control of the formerly independent Armenian and Georgian principalities. His efforts, like those of his predecessors, ultimately failed to reverse the growing concentration of land in the hands of a few individuals and the Church. Although he replaced many older families with a new group of loyal families, their growing wealth and power ultimately damaged the revenues, authority, personnel, and military resources of the state. Following the death of Basil II, the empire enjoyed economic expansion and prosperity but suffered from a series of mediocre emperors who neglected new technological, cultural, and economic developments in Western Europe and the Islamic world while the army deteriorated. The seljuk turks, after conducting a series of devastating raids in the empire's eastern territories, crushed an imperial army at the Battle of Manzikert (1071), near Lake Van (eastern part of Little Asia), and overran most of Byzantine Asia Minor. The old thematic armies had decayed. Meanwhile, the Byzantines lost their last foothold in Italy and were alienated from the Christian West by the schism of 1054 between the Orthodox Church and the papacy.
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